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The Expensive Drink
Posted by: Bekons (09/05/2019) * D-Rank, 4 Players Description "I bought some a ranther fancy drink for the richer patrons, and while unloading it the two lads that were picking it up vanished. I can't have rumours of potential customers dissapearing spread, and need you to check it out." - Innkeep Stone, of Old Cock Inn, Lundy. Journals Joan Jones (09/06/2019) Report: We set out for the harbor town of Lundy. I had some reservations in going back there after the fiasco that happened last time with those devils in the sandwich shop. When we arrived, the guards were indeed quite cross with us. They let us into the city once we explained our busines and we arrived at the Old Cock Inn and spoke with our employer, inkeeper Stone. The long and short of his issue was that he had a massive barrel-sized bottle of glowing liquor. Judging by his words, he bought it from some shady robed people in Eleria. He also calimed that two of his employees vanished while unloading the bottle, though he did not witness the event firsthand. After some deliberation and cursory examination of the mysterious glowing container, I decided to take my usual straightforward approach and placed a hand upon it. Next thing I knew, I was standing on a house-sized boulder with an infinite void all around me. Having partaken in inter-planar travel on another mission, I recognized this as the Astral Plane. I then proceeded to panic, as I had heard of people getting stranded there for all eternity. After about... twenty minutes (I am not sure, time flows awkwardly in that place) I saw Ravana appear next to me through a tear in reality. A few more chunks of time saw Bangstel and then finally Paper join us. We then proceeded to ponder our predicament. After some trial and error we discovered that not only time, but gravity as well seemed to work strangely. We would become weightless and drift off into the void if we lose our footing. Bangstel then had the idea of walking to the underside of the boulder, his feet sticking to it as if a spider. Most bizarre and disorienting. It's at this point I decided to stop questioning this bizarre plane and its nonsensical rules and just accepted things at face value. In any event, we discovered a glowing pink gemstone, clearly magical, embedded in the boulder. Its light was the same hue as the liquor that stranded us there, so it seemed to be a beacon of sorts to make sure whoever touched that bottle arrived on this rock specifically. Someone had brought us to that spot, and the most we could do was wait. After an indeterminate (literally) amount of time, Ravana spotted a ship approaching us. We were 'invited' aboard by a bunch of void-pirates that I would later find out were gith. After a quick but vicious battle against the crew and its captain, we emerged victorious, though at a price. Paper, our kenku ranger, was enveloped by an enchanted piece of cloth. Though Ravana defeated the creature, it managed to take Paper's life with its final moments. I consider this a personal failure and a mark of shame. I should have been there to defend and heal my teammate, but instead I had ran off to challenge a harpoon thrower. Though I tried to rush to Paper's aid as fast as I could, I was not quick enough. That unfortunate event aside, we set out investigating this bizarre void-ship. A fantastical craft to be sure, it had sails on its sides, holes on its underside, and a great, glowing, electrified crystal poking out of its rear deck. The crystal seemed of particular importance, as one of the pirates seemed to be using it to steer the ship somehow. Unfortunately, said priate did not survive the encounter. We did manage to capture one of them alive, but we did not share a language so communication was basic and mostly unhelpful. On the captain's body, we found a book of some importance in an unfamiliar language - likely Druidic. We then gained access to the captain's quarters by convincing the sentient door to let us through. The room was filled with yet more books, a lot of them in elvish. I uncovered hints that suggested that the vessel, or at least the raw materials used in its construction, originated from the Feywild. After another chunk of time that seemed to drift by like a coma, I was able to determine some sort of keyphrase. Though I did not know its meaning or purpose, I was able to recite it successfully in front of the crystal. I then saw a short humanoid figure within the crystal. It spoke to me telepathically and could understand my words, though the others could neither see nor hear it. In any event, this figure seemed to represent the ship's mind or consciousness, or maybe even soul. I am unfamiliar with the magic behind it, so I cannot say for sure what it was. The important part was that it called me 'Master' and listened to my commands. Through it, I was able to steer the ship towards where we originated from. The voyage was long. Or it felt long, at least. As mentioned, time flows oddly in the Astral Plane. After what felt like weeks we discovered some great beast was chasing us across the void. Apparently the gith were not pirates, but hunters, and that creature was their quarry. From what I gathered, they were using the bottle that set this whole mess into motion to effectively kidnap people to use as live bait. Though I know not what happened to the two workers that disappeared prior to us being hired, it seemed clear they had fallen victim to these scum-sucking privateers, and I felt no remorse or regret for making them bite the ground. We did have one of them prisoner, which turned out to be useful. The titanic creature, easily over a dozen times larger than our ship, eventually caught up with us. What followed was a brief long-range battle that saw us trying to repel it. We threw harpoons and fired ship-mounted ballistae, with our gith prisoner assisting us. I must say, with Paper out of commission, the criminal did a good job of keeping himself - and also us - alive. After several well-placed shots to the terrifying alien lobster-thing's only eye, it decided we were not worth the trouble and gave up on the chase. With the creature repelled, we completed the rest of our journey without any further attacks. There was one final incident, however. When we shifted from the Astral Plane into the Material, we landed right in the middle of the town of Lundy. I would like to note I specifically requested that the ship avoid causing property damage beforehand. Unfortunately, the vessel's spirit (for lack of a better term) seemed unable to control its course to that fine a degree. This resulted in five buildings, including the Old Cock Inn, being completely flattened and demolished. Thankfully there were no deaths and only minor injuries, but the local authorities and business owners were understandably quite upset about the whole thing. The good news was the ridiculous amount of treasure those inter-dimensional scum-buckets had on their ship was enough to cover all the property damage. There was even some left over that served as our payment. Among our rewards was also a magical gemstone with the power to summon a mighty fire elemental, which ended up in my possession. The bad news was that the town of Lundy, its orcish guards in particular, now have an even deeper and completely justified hatred of the Blue Hoods. Fellow guild members who venture there should expect harsh but fair treatment. In any event, we learned that even though our journey lasted for an unknowable number of days, only scant minutes had passed on our home plane of existence. We were able to return Paper's body to Eleria, where he can hopefully get resurrected. Our team also managed to secure the void-ship for the guild. It remains largely intact and functional, though, as I understand it, the vessel would require hefty repairs before it can sail the Astral Plane again. Personal note: I feel a bit uneasy handing such a powerful craft over to the Blue Hoods. Though I believe the upper echelons of the organization to be honourable and respectable, the moral deficit of some of its members worry me. - Joan Jones, Wandering Knight of the Order of the Silver Raven Rewards: 483 gp, 1 Greater Healing Potion, 1 Elemental Gem (Red Corundum)